Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
Nozick’s candor
Before we jump into Chapter 1 of “Anarchy, State, and Utopia”, we want to return to Nozick’s preface one last time. The preface not only summarizes the main conclusions and methods of his book; it also calls out the intellectual … Continue reading
Nozick’s minimal state
Nozick’s preface sets forth his main conclusion: only a “minimal state”–i.e. a collective “limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on”–is consistent with the principle of individual rights. Nozick further concludes … Continue reading
Nozick’s premise
Let’s begin our review of Robert Nozick’s book Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Nozick opens his preface with this famous sentence: “Individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights).” This … Continue reading
Coming soon …
… A page by page, chapter by chapter review of Nozick’s classic work Anarchy, State, and Utopia. (Here is a PDF of Nozick’s book for your reference.) Fasten your seat belts, this project will take up the rest of November … Continue reading
Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias
We haven’t forgotten our family, friends, and fellow citizens in the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Infographic
Missing from this infographic: What is the average (median) sentence imposed on the 83 convicted war criminals?
Bayesian updating (net neutrality edition)
Remember the Y2K Problem? Looks like we can add “the lack of net neutrality” to the list of terrible worries that were overblown or never materialized. Back in 2006, for example, our libertarian friend and colleague Tyler Cowen supported the … Continue reading
A Bayesian approach to the trolley problem? (mini-thought experiment)
Note: This is a follow-up to our Nov. 14 post titled “A Bayesian defense of the Hadley rule.” In our 2014 paper Trolley Problems, we wrote (footnotes omitted): “Consider the [standard] version of the trolley problem [pictured below]. There are … Continue reading

